ALTRUISM ADVOCATION

An Attack on the Common Good and Those Who Serve It

NEWSFLASH: The rich villain is a cynic

“Look for the helpers” -Mr. Rogers’. It’s no wonder they are defunding PBS. Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

The klepto-oligarchs try to force a reality where the only value that matters is self-interest, and where serving that interest by accumulating ghastly amounts of wealth by any means necessary is posited as a virtue that serves society.

In this upside-down reality, ruthless greed is rewarded, and serving the common good is a joke.

Some might argue their wealth is proof of their value to society, but the value of their wealth, especially recently, hasn’t come without the massive weight of their financial thumb on the scale of government policy that benefits them at everyone else’s expense.

Inequality is rising in the U.S. largely because business elites are exercising more influence over policy outcomes, research shows. [This] related work on privatization explains how 50 years of outsourcing public functions — through contracting, disinvestment and job cuts — threatens democratic accountability.

Research across different countries has repeatedly found that higher income inequality increases political corruption. It does so by undermining trust in government and institutions, and enabling elites to dominate policymaking while weakening public oversight.

Since 2010, weakened campaign finance laws driven by monied interests have sharply increased corruption risks. The Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United to lift campaign finance restrictions, enabling unlimited political spending. It reached an apex in 2024, when Elon Musk spent $200 million to elect Trump before later installing his Starlink equipment onto Federal Aviation Administration systems in a reported takeover of a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon.

Research shows that a large majority of Americans believe that the economy is rigged, suggesting everyday people sense the link between inequality and corruption. Link to article

The shaping of reality to the will of the ultra-wealthy is almost working, especially with the help of the Trump administration. The new regime is transforming the government that already mostly served the ultra-rich, but also the common good, into one that only serves the interests of an oligarchy and squashes the common good along with those who serve it.

After all, if a reality exists where there are those working to serve the common good who are rewarded, valued, and praised by society, that comes into direct conflict with the one they impose, where might-makes-right, and value and reward are solely for unabashed — winner take all — greed. In other words, the existence of the altruism inherent in public service, education, journalism, and science becomes a threat to those who want the idea of the common good reduced to Pollyanna-ish fiction.

Although not every practitioner or professional in those institutions lives up to it, there is at least a long-standing ethos and expectation for them to serve the common good with integrity. In this, there exists a distinction between ethical practice as opposed to not, and thus a framework upon which to build credentials, a.k.a. trust. A framework that is being purposefully discredited in the same effort to dismantle those institutions.

As part of his schtick, DJT publicly bloviates a regular cadence of demoralizing and even dehumanizing insults to journalists, subject experts, and entire Universities. And privately, as has been reported, he also defames those who have served in the military. In a continuation of that track, we have witnessed Elon Musk’s DOGE goons make a spectacle out of bullying, belittling, and demeaning civil service professionals in the federal government. In this, the idea of altruism or of serving the common good was publicly shamed, belittled, and deemed “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

But Elon and the other billionaires’ grievances against federal agencies that regulate their government-subsidized businesses, and their empty claims that government services are a waste, are way out of touch with citizen sentiment.

*Large majorities of Americans believe government workers are serving the public over themselves. And as many as 87% of Americans say they want a merit-based, politically neutral civil service. The U.S. has attracted to government service workers who are good at their jobs and able to remain politically neutral at work. Saying that’s no longer important would change the relationship between government workers and their jobs. And it would hurt the nation as a whole if government cannot attract the best and the brightest, or if it sends the best and the brightest packing because they are not comfortable with their work situation, or if they stay but their performance declines. (Link to article)*

Federal workers’ obligation is to the public interest and the Constitution, not to a party. Replacing the federal workers they keep with loyalists further undermines the common good by turning positions that once served the public interest into ones that serve the party’s interest, which is apparently serving the interests of the ultra-wealthy in getting ultra-ultra wealthier. That, and stoking culture wars, of course.

The last word goes to Heather and LBJ:

On May 22, 1964, in a graduation speech at the University of Michigan, President Lyndon Johnson put a name to a new vision for the United States. He called it “the Great Society” and laid out the vision of a country that did not confine itself to making money…

“There are those timid souls who say this battle cannot be won; that we are condemned to a soulless wealth. I do not agree. We have the power to shape the civilization that we want. But we need your will, your labor, your hearts, if we are to build that kind of society.”

*May 21, 2025 — by Heather Cox Richardson*

Photo by Elissa Garcia on Unsplash

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